Sunday, April 22, 2012

Last night hubby and I as part of our vacation to Toronto went to
see a play. We picked Prisoner of Tehran,
which was adapted from Marina Nemat’s book into a play by Maja Ardal. The play
was at Theatre Passe Muraille, which wasn’t that far from our downtown hotel.
We didn’t know what to expect and we were both blown away. Now I know my books
and my blog are usually about romance or writing but I had to change it up
today to honor Marina Nemat’s journey and the three amazing actors who performed
such an odyssey of a journey with this play.

Razi Shawahdeh played all the male roles. Unbelievable. I cringed
when he took on the jailer who fell in love with Marina and how he was able to
flip from one character who was all innocent to another so volatile—well I’m
betting he was exhausted by the end of the play.

Bahareh Yaraghi played Marina and she moved me with how she tried
to be just your average teenager in the 1980s when the Ayatollah Khomeini
replaced Shah Mohammad Reza. Independence, is something most us of westerns
take for granted but within weeks of the new regime life for women moved to the
dark ages.

I have to say that Mirian Katrib who played all the other female
roles, I lost count of how many that was, was the star in this production.
Mirian moved effortlessly from one character who could be a young teen
pretending to skip rope to an old woman dictating the new Muslim laws. I was
spellbound watching Mirian and all three of these virtuosos actors. Thank you
so much for such a wonderful special night out on the town in Toronto. If you
have not seen this play do so. It’s playing until April 28th.

If you haven’t read Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
than get it today at http://amzn.com/B00480OBU8.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I’m so excited to launch Claiming Poseidon’s Heart, but not for the reasons you might expect. What thrills me is that this will be my third Indie publication. When I started this journey of self-publishing I was apprehensive about all the what if’s that face many authors.

The first book I launched was one that I received the rights back to—Rapture. After the learning curve of publishing Rapture, I discovered this wonderful Indie world of authors who help each other. It’s been such a wonderful experience I feel as if I’ve entered into a writers’ co-operative. We share marketing tips, ask basic questions, share information on good editors, graphic designers and much more. Looking back I find it hard to fathom that it was only four months ago that I took the Indie plunge. Honestly, it’s been such a great experience, I love it. One of the big things for me is taking the mystery out of publishing. I always wondered how the big 6 publishers did it and now I know.

Here’s what the big 6 publishers do – find a good story, hire a cover artist, hire an editor and even a line editor, purchase ISBN, foster relationships with booksellers to urge them to showcase their authors

Here’s what I did – wrote a good story, hired a cover artists, hired an editor, for free Canadians can secure ISBNS, fostering and building my relationships with my audience—readers and other Indie authors.

The mystery has been solved. Indie publishing is doable. Indie publishing let’s you set the pace of your writing schedule. Indie publishing can be an uplifting experience.I hope you enjoyed my Indie journey and in celebration of my third Indie publication on Amazon I’ve launched a contest.